Albert Square

This article is about the fictional location used in the BBC television programme, EastEnders. For the real-life square in Manchester, UK, see Albert Square, Manchester.
Albert Square

Aerial view of Albert Square as it was during the 1980s
Genre Soap opera
Type Square
Notable locations The Queen Victoria
Notable characters EastEnders characters

Albert Square is the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders in the equally fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End. The square's design was based on Fassett Square in Hackney, and was given the name Albert Square after Prince Albert. The public house, The Queen Victoria, was also given its name due to this. One of the key characteristics of the pub is the window twitching by any of the occupants throughout the years. They are often known to look out of the windows, giving a view of the whole Square. This is especially common in dramatic storylines.

Central to the Square is the garden. The garden is home to Arthur Fowler's bench, which was placed there in memory of him. The bench is also known as the Bench of Tears, as it is often the place where characters will go and cry.

The square is the centre of all of the everyday drama in all of Walford's residents' lives; most of the characters in EastEnders live on the square. Although a major place on the show, there are other places which are used in the show, like the market.

Residences

The Queen Victoria public house, known to residents as the Queen Vic or simply 'The Vic', stands south of the square, where it joins with Bridge Street. The pub, which is number 46, is owned and run by Mick Carter (Danny Dyer), his wife Linda (Kellie Bright) and mother Shirley (Linda Henry). Mick and Linda live above the Vic with three of their children, Lee (Danny-Boy Hatchard), Nancy (Maddy Hill), and baby Ollie, along with Lee's girlfriend Whitney Dean (Shona McGarty), Mick's great-aunt, Babe Smith (Annette Badland) and their bulldog Lady Di. East of the pub is a building with 2 flats, the ground floor flat (47A) is home to Donna Yates. The top floor flat (47B) is currently unoccupied. West of these in the southwest corner leads off to a walkway through to Turpin Way, on which the Walford Community Centre and Playground are found.[1]

To the west of the Queen Vic, across the junction with Bridge Street, is the Beale house, 45 Albert Square, owned by Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt) and currently occupied by him, his wife Jane Beale (Laurie Brett), and his son Bobby (Eliot Carrington). Next to that is 43 Albert Square, whose occupants are currently unknown. In the southwest corner of The Square is number 41, the Masood house, owned and occupied by Masood Ahmed (Nitin Ganatra), along with his son Tamwar Masood (Himesh Patel) and daughter Shabnam Masood (Rakhee Thakrar).[1] Between No. 41 & No. 43 is Daisy Lane, a pathway connecting Albert Square to Victoria Square.

On the west edge of The Square there are two houses (knocked through as one), 18-20 Albert Square, both owned by Patrick Trueman (Rudolph Walker) and Kim Fox-Hubbard (Tameka Empson). The house is occupied by Patrick, Kim, Kim's sister Denise Fox (Diane Parish), Kim's husband Vincent Hubbard (Richard Blackwood) and their daughter Pearl. It was previously Walford's B&B, 'Kim's Palace', but when Kim extended her time away Patrick closed the business, unable to cope with the running alone. North of the old B&B is the rear of Phil Mitchell's (Steve McFadden) house, 55 Victoria Road, where he lives with wife Sharon (Letitia Dean), his son Ben (Harry Reid), her son Dennis (Harry Hickles), Phil's adopted son Jay Brown (Jamie Borthwick) and Ben's girlfriend Abi Branning (Lorna Fitzgerald).

A row of five terraced houses line the north edge of Albert Square. The westernmost house, number 31, famously belonged to Pat Butcher (Pam St. Clement) and on her death was passed on to her daughter-in-law Carol Jackson (Lindsey Coulson). It is currently occupied by her daughter Sonia Fowler (Natalie Cassidy) and granddaughter Rebecca Fowler (Jasmine Armfield), along with Sonia's partner Tina Carter (Luisa Bradshaw-White). The property next door is split into two flats. Number 27 has passed hands a number of times, having belonged to Phil, Tanya Branning (Jo Joyner) and Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks), and currently belongs to Phil's cousin Ronnie (Samantha Womack), who lives there with her infant son Matthew.

Number 25, a council house, has been the home of Dot Cotton (also Branning, played by June Brown) for over twenty years. She has lived there alone since the departure of her lodger and friend Fatboy. The easternmost property in the terrace, number 23, was the home of Alfie Moon (Shane Richie) and his family until it was destroyed in September 2014 by a huge fire.[1][2]

On the northeast edge of Albert Square is Deals on Wheels, a car lot owned by Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden), former owners include Max Branning (Jake Wood), Archie Mitchell (Larry Lamb), Pat Butcher (Pam St. Clement), David Wicks (Michael French) and probably most famously Frank Butcher (Mike Reid). South of that is another terrace of three elevated properties. The northernmost house, number 5 is currently owned and occupied by Max Branning (Jake Wood). A road leaves to the north at the northeast edge of the square, passing by the car lot. The middle house (3 Albert Square) is currently a care home. Most southerly of this terrace is the old doctor's surgery, which has seen GP tenants including Anthony Trueman (Nicholas Bailey), May Wright (Amanda Drew) and Yusef Khan (Ace Bhatti). There are 2 flats above. The middle flat (1B) is currently unoccupied. The top floor flat (1A) was rented by Cora Cross [1] until she supposedly left to visit her daughter Tanya and subsequently became homeless following the death of her fiancé Stan Carter (Timothy West)

Albert Square within the EastEnders set

The exterior set for the fictional Albert Square is located in the permanent backlot of the BBC Elstree Centre, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, at 51°39′32″N 0°16′40″W / 51.65889°N 0.27778°W / 51.65889; -0.27778, and is outdoors and open to the weather. The main buildings on the square consisted originally of hollow shells, constructed from marine plywood facades mounted onto steel frames. The lower walls, pavements, etc., are constructed of real brick and tarmac. The walls were intentionally built crooked to give them an aged appearance. The drains around the set are real so rain water can naturally flow from the streets. The square was built in two phases with only three sides being built, plus Bridge Street, to begin with in 1984, in time to be used for the show's first episode, which was aired on 19 February 1985. The fourth side of the square plus further expansion to the exterior set was completed in 1987 with a further, final, expansion in 1993. Most of the buildings on Albert Square have no interior filming space, with a few exceptions, and most do not have rears or gardens. Most areas by the front (and sometimes back) doors are decorated and dressed to match the interior set to allow shots of doors being opened.

The set was expanded further to include George Street, more shops and the tube station in 1992 in order to create further locations when EastEnders went from two to three episodes per week in 1993. The newer exterior sets including fish & chip shop, video shop and beauty salon have some interior filming space to create a greater sense of realism. As the show is filmed up to six weeks in advance, the trees need to have extra leaves stuck on them during the spring to make them look like they would in summer.

In February 2008 it was reported that Albert Square would transfer to Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, where a new set will be built as the current set is looking rather shabby, with its flaws showing up on high-definition television broadcasts.[3] However, by April 2010 a follow-up report confirmed that Albert Square would remain at Elstree Studios for at least another four years, taking the set through its 25th anniversary.[4] The set was consequently rebuilt for high definition on the same site, using mostly real brick with some areas using a new improved plastic brick. Throughout rebuilding filming would still take place, and so scaffolding was often seen on screen during the process, with some story lines written to accommodate the rebuilding, such as the Queen Vic fire. In January 2014 the BBC announced on the EastEnders website that the set has been approved to be expanded by twenty percent, on the same site, with a temporary set to be constructed to be used for filming while the current set is expanded.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Welcome to Albert Square". Inside Soap. 12–18 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Kilkelly, Daniel. "EastEnders reveals dramatic September storylines". Digital Spy. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Sets too shabby for latest TVs force EastEnders out of town Times Online
  4. ↑ EastEnders to stay at Elstree Studios Guardian
  5. ↑ "EastEnders set expansion". BBC.

External links

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